City of Port Townsend Poet Laureate

Conner Bouchard-Roberts is Port Townsend’s first Poet Laureate, 2024-2025. Bouchard-Roberts is a local poet and publisher (Winter Texts) who collaborates with many other literary artists, and works closely with community partners to amplify literary arts in Port Townsend and bring poetry to the civic space.

A civic poet for the community

The Poet Laureate program was launched in 2023 as a collaboration between the Council Culture and Society Committee and the Port Townsend Arts Commission, in partnership with the Port Townsend Public Library. The Poet Laureate serves the community in ceremonial, educational, and inspirational ways, infusing literary arts into civic dialogue. The Poet Laureate honors the city’s active, creative community, promotes the city’s robust literary arts, and celebrates the written word.

Each term, an open application process will utilize a panel of independent jurors alongside representatives from City Council and the Arts Commission.

"Poetry brings us closer to the truth of being, it is an act of noticing what is real, and some poems remind us of something long-forgotten about ourselves. Welcoming a Poet Laureate in our City welcomes the beautiful opportunity for Port Townsend to articulate the ineffable while holding poetic space for community connection."   
- Lindsey Wayland, 2023 Arts Commission Chair

The application for the 2026-2027 Port Townsend Poet Laureate is now open! 

- The City of Port Townsend appoints a Poet Laureate every two years for a two-year term. The program is a collaboration between the Port Townsend Arts Commission and the Port Townsend Public Library. The next Poet Laureate will be appointed by the Mayor in October 2025. Their term will go from January 2026-December 2027

- The Poet Laureate is an honorary position as ambassador of poetry in Port Townsend, honoring the City’s vibrant literary arts community, promoting the City’s commitment to the arts and alongside the Public Library, celebrating the written word.

- To be eligible, you must be at least 18 years of age at the time of application, have been a Port Townsend (or East Jefferson County) resident for at least one year and remain a resident throughout the two-year term, and be prepared to undertake the public role required of the Laureate.

- A 3-to-5-member panel coordinated by PTAC will jury the selection process. The panel will include members of the literary community, a PTAC Commissioner and the PTAC City Council Liaison.

- The Poet Laureate will receive a $1,500 honorarium each year.

- With the support of PTAC and the Library, the Poet Laureate should expect to participate in a minimum of one public event each quarter, appear at the Arts Commission Art Awards, present at least two City Council meetings each year, and contribute a poem to the City’s quarterly printed newsletter. They should also undertake at least one special project each year that highlights the program for the community.

- Applicants are asked to submit a short biographical statement, 4 to 6 recent poems, a 1-to-2-page narrative about your interest in the position, and a curriculum vitae highlighting contributions to the poetry field.

READY TO APPLY? READ FIRST:
Full Application Details

>>>>>>>>>ENTER Applicant Portal<<<<<<<<<

Connect to a city of literature in Port Townsend.

"Port Townsend is a literary town of great bookstores, used, new, and otherwise. Imprint and William James in downtown. Winter texts and the Library Bookshop in Uptown. Each with a unique selection and an eddy in the flow of writing. As well, our truly wonderful City Library is the real center of free public literature in town. No town can really be called a town without a public library. And woven throughout and around those physical collections are regular events being hosted by Kathryn Hunt with “Poetry on the Salish Sea,” Carl Youngman and Bill Mawhinney with “Poetry at the Meeting House,” Holly Hughes and John Pierce with Empty Bowl Press…and my own nebulous gatherings I host roughly once a month. Oh, and the poetry shrine “Memory’s Vault” is well worth a visit: just think how many incredible authors have walked up that wooded hill.

The best way to engage with the Poet Laureate Program is to pick up a poem and read it and go for a long walk to see how it changes your view of town. Or give a poem to a dear friend. The second-best way is to regularly attend City Council business meetings where myself and others will be reading poems from time to time to our City Councilmembers. Otherwise? Keep your eyes open, plenty of happenings yet to be imagined or advertised."
 
- Conner Bouchard-Roberts

A Victorian Seaport and Arts Community

Hard to say
where memory and
story of memory
lay along the shore

this is of course
the gull’s call and echo
down streets
down bluffs

the stone’s weight
of time and present
in one hand,
in the other, bills

eroding cliffs
rising sea
a long walk
to think this over

this all got going
as waves, wind, and roots—
long before she was born
Victoria’s hands were sea-water

walking the valley
again, lost names
accruing silt
and translations

forward and back
in time
Water Street
holds its name